Discord - Another Gaming Platform

Discord offers developers a a 90/10 revenue split:

TL;DR — In 2019, the Discord store will allow all developers to self-publish games with a 90/10 revenue split.

Back in 2015, we asked ourselves a few questions. Why do you still need to enter an IP address to join voice chat? Why do gamers have to pay for voice chat? Everyone was already using Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, or Mumble, and we wanted to make yet another one.

However, we believed that we could create a modern and easy-to-use app that provided more people with the amazing experience of hanging out online with friends. Nearly 4 years later, over 200 million people have used Discord to chat and play games with their friends.

Discord has also brought game developers and their fans much closer together. As a player, there is something amazing about jumping into a verified community server and talking directly to the developers who build the game you love.

Earlier this year though, we noticed a change happening in the game industry. We talked to a lot of developers, and many of them feel that current stores are not earning their 30% of the usual 70/30 revenue share. Because of this, we now see developers creating their own stores and launchers to distribute their games instead of focusing on what's really important -- making great games and cultivating amazing communities.

So, we asked ourselves a few more questions. Why does it cost 30% to distribute games? Is this the only reason developers are building their own stores and launchers to distribute games?

Turns out, it does not cost 30% to distribute games in 2018. After doing some research, we discovered that we can build amazing developer tools, run them, and give developers the majority of the revenue share.

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Thanks henriquejr!

More information.

Just more PR spiel from someone selling their game client to developers/gamers. Seems game clients will soon be plentiful just as the TV services offered nowadays.

Time to get a password manager and probably a game client manager.

Anway love this response.

Ahhhh… the Royalty-split war has begun. Discord Store, as cool as it looked, I never knew anyone who actually bought anything on there. So the actual revenue must have been small for devs.

Now that Epic Game Store has launched at 88/12, it’s only a matter of time when “small stores” have to decide to stick to the old way of thinking for rev-split or actually innovate.

Now, this doesn’t really do much for either Discord/Epic Games, you still HAVE TO GET CUSTOMERS to buy on your store Afterall, 88% or 90% of $0.00 is still $0.00.

The race to the bottom is on now. We'll see how Steam responds.

Another launcher? You can never have enough of those!

If stores like steam have no exclusivity clause, developers could just offer their games on various stores and pass the better conditions on to the customers, partly at least. A game that costs $9 on steam would cost $7 on Discord, etc.

Originally Posted by rjshae
The race to the bottom is on now. We'll see how Steam responds.

Back when Unreal Engien 4 became free, Unity Pro became free as well within a month IIRC. That was different though, sicne both had a large following. Here, Steam is a juggernaut with a few years head-start, I'd say.

Not for me but you can enjoy.

Discord, isn't that the typing/talking program? I used it briefly when playing Everquest two years ago, but I'd no idea they sold stuff, or were going to morph into an online platform. Pretty sure I wouldn't install it as I certainly didn't have a positive experience the first time around.

Their store is quite new, I believe it was released August 2018.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Discord, isn't that the typing/talking program?

Lately it's used as some odd sort of social network.

My goal is to have at least 37 launchers installed by the end of 2019.

Wait….just wait one damn sec…I thought people were already predicting that Epic Games store was going to become a major force, and bring steam to its knees??….How can this be, where another store launches trying to compete with steam? They dare think they can compete with Epic Games, a Chinese gigantic corporation like Tencent?? This is inconceivable! (sarcasm)

Yea, but seriously, here we go. I guess the competition will be good for steam. This option, for sure, is much more palatable than Chinese-affiliated Epic Games.

But I still think many people are underestimating the force of a juggernaut like steam. They have a precious thing called loyalty with many of their customers, since they have so many gamers that have been with them for so long by now…and by and large, they have done an excellent job, in what steam does. Steam - I think - will be just fine.

Even if another dozen huge players enter the market, perhaps even with one going full kamikaze with a 95/5 as the developer favored sales percentage…lol

It seems that Discord has added a twist compared to some of the other services. For a price of 9.99 a month they have a library of games that you can play as much as you want as often as you want and I checked and its about about 70 games so far, mostly side scrollers and old games but they do have Tyranny, and System Shock EE and the Torchlights to name a few good old games. It also adds your other games and you can launch them from Discord.

I'm intrigued with this because Netflix turned this method into a billion dollar industry. I think it's downloading not streaming games like some other companies tried and failed with. If I was Steam I would be more worried of this then the other platforms.
A chat service(free)
A game store
A game subscription service

Hmmnn

and Discord is a rock solid voice chat app that anyone who plays games with friend is using. It works better then anything i have used. Many game developers are using the platform to communicate(In real time) with players about their products and what players expect. Its a great product.
The only negative is now with the store you are getting much more updates with the launcher which stinks.

My goal is to have at most 5 launchers by end of 2022; and I currently have 4 (uplay, ea origin, gog galaxy and steam). Who will be the 5th…. hum gotta choose carefully. subnautical for free is very tempting but hum…. do i want to lock myself out today or wait till 2021 or so to decide…. hum….. decision decision…

Originally Posted by JDR13
My goal is to have at least 37 launchers installed by the end of 2019.

Originally Posted by redman5427
It seems that Discord has added a twist compared to some of the other services. For a price of 9.99 a month they have a library of games that you can play as much as you want as often as you want and I checked and its about about 70 games so far, mostly side scrollers and old games but they do have Tyranny, and System Shock EE and the Torchlights to name a few good old games. It also adds your other games and you can launch them from Discord.

I'm intrigued with this because Netflix turned this method into a billion dollar industry. I think it's downloading not streaming games like some other companies tried and failed with. If I was Steam I would be more worried of this then the other platforms.
A chat service(free)
A game store
A game subscription service

Hmmnn

and Discord is a rock solid voice chat app that anyone who plays games with friend is using. It works better then anything i have used. Many game developers are using the platform to communicate(In real time) with players about their products and what players expect. Its a great product.
The only negative is now with the store you are getting much more updates with the launcher which stinks.

The subscription thing isn’t new EA has been doing it for a while and it works great.

$99/yr, so it’s cheaper. 130+ games. Lots of newer titles and a much better package than discord’s offer imo.

I subscribed when it was first launched and it’s been great. Access to a bunch of great titles for the price of 1 game with season pass.

I know many here really don’t like EA but it’s really a great deal imo.

As for discord I’ve never used it but my son uses all the time for chat and hasn’t had any issues.

I’m not a big fan of having all the different clients but it is what it is. I’m a gamer nd I’ll go where the games are that I want to play as I believe most gamers will. Back when steam launched the thought of a client running in the background as i games was annoying but now it’s really nothing. I have origin, Ubi, galaxy and steam. I run GeForce experience, always have a browser open in the background, etc and I just let then all run at start up. I don’t ever have any issues.

So yeah multiple client isn’t ideal but I’ll adjust just as I did when steam first came out and everyone poo pooed it. I’m a gamer and I won’t skip games I want to play just because I have to install another client.

The subscription thing isn’t new EA has been doing it for a while and it works great.

That is a pretty cool thing that I was completely unaware of. Seems its only 4.99 a month if you don't want access to their new games before they get released and then its 15.99 a month. 160 plus games a month. That is much better at this point.

I'll just stick with great old games and steam for now at least, I really don't want ten different platforms on my computer. Not this year, not next year, not ever.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I'll just stick with great old games and steam for now at least, I really don't want ten different platforms on my computer. Not this year, not next year, not ever.

Yep, GoG and Steam are all I need… just like I have Netflix and nothin' else.

Also Playstation Now has a streaming service for pc gamers. $20 a month. The good thing is they have a large selection of good to excellent and well known games, some that are exclusive to playstation, and that have never been ported to the pc. Like red dead redemption, for instance. The bad news is that I have heard it really sucks, because the streaming is laggy, slow, and the graphics are upscaled too, and it doesn't look very good either, at least, not as good as it would be playing on a Playstation console, and definitely not as smooth either.

Anyway, I do know about discord, and that it's very popular among young people, and not just gamers either. Lots of youtube personalities who have popular channels use discord a lot to do live streams and talk to people and although I never have gone onto discord personally, there is no question its a big deal that they will start offering games, and they could become a real competitor to steam, eventually one day, anyway.

I have nothing useful to say about Discord (never used it).

But some mentioned the EA/Origin Access monthly game sub. If you sign up for a year it's only $30(US). That's $2.50 a month. Every EA game I have any interest in is included (ghost of a tale,mass effect games, dragon ages,etc). So there's zero reason to ever buy an EA game really, just get the basic sub for 1 year, play everything, then dump it. The only reason I know this is because they had a free week a little while back. I canned it after the free week but will get it someday when I feel like playing thru the Dragon Age series (only played the first).

The $10 a month sub for Discord's game service seems really high (even if they had a lot more games).